Venkat is Founder and CEO of Karkinos Healthcare. He is currently engaged as an Advisor to the Chairman, Reliance Industries Limited, India's largest private sector company.

Prior to his association with Reliance, Venkat spent more than a decade and a half with the Tata Group in various capacities. His last assignment in the Tata Group was as Managing Trustee of the Tata Trusts wherein he was responsible for the operations, oversight and co-ordination between the various Tata Trusts.

In his role as the Chief Executive Officer of the Tata Trusts, Venkat was engaged in redefining the Tata Trusts' strategic approach with a view to making it relevant and responsive to the current needs of society while remaining within the mandate established by the Settlors. He was directly overseeing several large initiatives within the Trusts viz "Lakhpati Kisan – an program that aims to significantly enhance rural prosperity in under privileged and deprived communities, redefining Cancer Care across the country, technology enabled education initiatives in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the sanitation and nutrition projects in collaboration with Govt., of India.

He has over two decades of business and operations experience in the areas of finance, business support and strategy. From early 2007 to end 2012, he was Executive Assistant to Mr. Ratan N. Tata, the former Chairman of the Tata Group. During his stint in the Chairman's office of Tata Sons, Venkat was part of several significant projects including the Tata Motors acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover, launch of the small car Nano, creation of several Joint Ventures, responses in operating companies during the 2008 financial crisis etc., and was also privy to several senior leadership transitions and change management processes in the Tata Group. On behalf of the Chairman, he was the key point person to several entities in India and abroad.

Prior to his stint with Mr. Tata's office, Venkat was associated as Head of Business Support at the Qatar Foundation, a not for profit entity engaged in Education, Science and Community development based in Doha, wherein he played a key role in establishing partnerships with a number of leading US universities.

Venkat is a Science graduate and has done his MBA from the Sri Satya Sai University, Puttaparthi. He is also a Law Graduate from Mumbai University and has completed his Advanced Management Program (AMP) from the Harvard Business School. He is currently pursuing his EngD from the University of Warrick, UK on role of Technology in Health Care Systems.

Over the past several years, in his personal capacity, Venkat actively supported Mr. Ratan Tata in his investments in the technology, digital and e-commerce space that have now begun to attract significant attention in India and abroad. He was also the CEO of UC-RNT Fund, a US$ 350 million VC fund that Mr. Tata established in collaboration with the University of California. A key proponent of societal platforms, he is the midst of incubating alternative business and investment vehicles that work in the intersection of business, philanthropy, non-profits and governments on the notion of sustainable shared value creation for societal benefit

Co-Founder, Medical Director and CEO, Karkinos Kerala

BSC, BDS, MB CHB, MD (USA), FDSRCS, FFDRCS, FRCS, FRCS ED, AB

Moni Abraham Kuriakose has previously served Narayana Health City, Bangalore as director of surgical oncology and director of Mazumdar Shaw Centre for Translational Research. Prior to this he had the following assignments-

He is currently visiting professor at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and New York University. His clinical interests are management of advanced head and neck cancer, skull-base surgery, 3D planning and functional reconstruction. His research laboratory focus on understanding biology of oral cancer stem cells and targeting it to prevent oral cancer and using novel technology platform for early detection of the cancer. He has over 200 peer reviewed publications and five international patents to his credit. He is the author of a four-volume textbook titled `Contemporary Oral Oncology' and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Oral Cancer" by Springer-Nature group. He has served Indian head and neck cancer society (FHNO) as its past president and is the President Elect of International Academy of Oral Oncology (IAOO).

Selected peer-reviewed publications

Rita Isaac is an internationally recognized expert in cervical cancer prevention and control in low resource settings in India. She has been devoted to establishing models of care in low resource settings for non-communicable diseases including Cervical & Oral Cancer, Diabetes and more recently chronic respiratory diseases through translational research in collaboration with international universities for more than 15 years.

Her research specially focuses on developing cancer screening strategies and ensuring their effectiveness in resource limited settings. She has championed efforts to decrease smoking and implement other risk reduction programs, as well as to provide critical support to cancer patients and concentrate cancer control efforts in areas where they could be most effective. She has worked to train frontline health workers to engage the communities and promote early detection of cancer and chronic non-communicable diseases which has revolutionized patient treatment by increasing quality of life and reducing health disparities.

She currently leads the implementation science research projects on cancer and other chronic diseases care disparities at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, India and will be taking over as the Director of Population Research at Karkinos Cancer Health Care Foundation, Mumbai, India in April 2023, striving to close the healthcare, educational and social disparities in the prevention, detection, and treatment of cancer in India. She also directs community outreach programs for underserved populations in the service area of the organisation.

Dr. Ajit Nambiar, MD DNB FRCPath (UK), Fellowship in Surgical Oncopathology (TMH)

Dr. Ajit Nambiar Trained at Tata Memorial Hospital (TMH) and Imperial Trust, UK. He is an Ex Prof. & HOD Pathology, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi.

Dr. Ajit has expertise in the fields of onco-pathology, histopathology, cytopathology and Molecular pathology with Breast and Lung as Lead areas.

As part of his experience Dr. Ajit has successfully established six sigma lab processes, automation of IHC labs, coagulation labs, Digital Pathology and molecular laboratories as HOD, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. On the academic front the department could commence with Fellowship courses in Oncopathology, Renal Pathology and GI Liver under his leadership. Dr. Ajit also organised 4 AAPUD (amrita annual pathology update) International Pathology event from 2017 to 2021, state IAPM meet 2019, National IAPM on Minimalistic Pathology conference 2019, AIPNA 2021 and 24 webinars series SAGE with eminent national international GURU'S in Pathology.

Dr. Ajit has published 40 articles in National and International Journals and is a reviewer for 5 journals.

Dr. Ajit is the Trainer of trainers for Roche Merck PDL1 assays and also the Medical advisory board , Pathology for Roche and Merck.

Selected peer-reviewed publications (Dr. Ajit)